Beneath
by Abyssinian
Summary: This story is placed after the last episode. Al has fallen into coma, leaving Edward deeply saddened. To cure Al, Edward has to embark on a journey...encountering the Sins he thought he had destroyed....
1. Never In the Beginning

Within, it was a forgotten wasteland with telltale signs of what had once been full of life. Musty stains and rugged features that told fables of what had once been brimmed with a thriving mind, a rushing whirlwind of vibrant laughter and bright eyes. A surreal invocation deep within the intelligent mind of a certain blonde boy. A short, chubby blonde boy with a heart of gold, and silky stands of hair that stuck out like an odd golden bush. A form now the remnants of what once had dwelled supreme, instead of the mere dusty shell beneath sheer linen and white lined walls.

_He_ had been Alphonse Elric, and he _had_ been 10 years old once. But the years had gained on him far more then they were supposed to when he became a massive suit of armor. When he _became_ that towering force of metal that could rampage into severe destruction at will. Alphonse Elric who never got to regain that so-called childhood, filled with prepubescent delights and easy pleasures. The boy who had once been, a boy. He, who forgot many things as that suit of armor.

He forgot...

He forgot how to _breathe._

How to _touch_ another human.

How to _feel_ touch returned.

...However.

The one thing Alphonse never did forgot...was _love_.

Which was _given._

And _returned_.

Even when he returned back to a fleshy piece of meat at age 17...for that brief moment as a startlingly tall human with long blonde hair and childlike blue eyes seen so many years before, that same love shone deep within. An endless pool of warmth, a brilliance that melted every heart. Kindness, sadness, and forgiveness molded into one great entity, surged from so many years of cold pent up metal, exiled from any true expression. Bubbling up into _tides_.

...And even when he could've had a lifetime of...Feeling. Touching. _Breathing. _He exchanged one bleak life for another. A sacrifice for his elder brother. The only part of a decrepit family that he had left. The one who had been able to fight beside him for the sense of wholeness, who fought to _become,_ _regain, _and _strive_. All falling down into a pitted depth, into another battle to rage against.

It had happened in an instant, the things they did to conquer, the things they did to _survive._ When things began to look too impossible to understand or realize the fullness of those idealistic dilemmas and pearly tears. And when things began to tear and cave into themselves, where hopes, dreams, and butterfly wishes that had stood so tall they could've reached the sky...fell. Plummeting to the murky brown mud of depression, unleashing the threshold of unbearable sadness, unable to thrive in solitary conditions, urged for the blood of mankind and another's heart. When everything fell back to A, and insanity that ripped through everything they'd given up; Lost.

Yet _another_ sacrifice that had caused him, Alphonse...to offer his consciousness and newly found humanity. A very sacrifice that slipped him into a very human coma. Parting away a large strip of reality from his brother, Edward Elric.

This was_...one loss exchanged for a bigger one._


	2. And Time flees thee down

Edward Elric had always longed to feel the warmth of his brother again. Or the soft tuffs of blonde hair tickling against his cheek as they wrestled and fought hard amongst fresh blades of summertime grass and angel's breath in songbird winds. The trail they left that echoed their presence to the listening birds, who'd flutter away into a mist of idolized formation.

But unfortunately, the mere idea of it...it being the true touch of hot damp flesh after a satisfying fight, was said to be impossible. Metal clad, metal bound, just plain and entirely medaled Alphonse Elric would not emit the warmth his brother so wanted.

And even now, in the tall masculine body of a grown human man, as Edward took hold of Alphonse's hand. The already near dead eyes of the former State Alchemist dimmed even further as the sad and despairing registration that the skin of the younger Elric was _ice._ Eighteen years had shed away the childhood shortness that had dubbed Edward the name "Shortie". Tall, slender, but muscular, Edward had also, become a man. Blonde strands of hair that escaped from it's messy braid fell across pained eyes that quietly urged his brother to awaken.

Every day, and every night for the past week...Edward would urge and plead. Plead to nothing but air and shadows. Until she told him that he needed to go. To slumber dreamless dreams of what could've been, would've been, should've been. She, Winry. The flowered woman who stood beside him, a faint smile painted upon her lips, as long hair fled about her shoulders. She had never grown out of her mechanic hype. And Edward was glad that at least something remained constant.

"Visiting hours are over." A women with the white nurses cap popped her head in, and said in a hushed tone, loudness deprived of the lonely sterile atmosphere, the aura that washed away all tones of happiness leaving a dangerous noise of deepened emptiness. Echoing harsh realities over and over again. The room itself was entirely white, lacking in any sort of color except the faint tint of pink flesh on the unconscious Alphonse, and the slightly wilting roses that Edward had brought three days ago.

A rejected nod from the red coated alchemist, as he trudged passed the tired looking nurse. Winry following after slowly, a faint "Thank you." to the white clad woman, a last glance at the comatose form. Edward following her gaze for a long moment before tearing away somber yellow eyes.

The corridor was white, a sanctified area dubbed clean by hospital doctors and running nurses. All bent on carrying away the illnesses of patients...or their money. The two friends walked along, their silence pounding against their ears, an unusual attitude for the normally loud alchemist.

The end of the sprawling hallway, grey couches of the lounge appeared into view, another reality designed for the pseudo-comfort while people waited with injuries. Physical and mental. Physical being broken limbs, aching bodies. Mental being not the actual patients, but the close relatives and friends waiting in good _faith_ for hope and well being.

Edward had not given up his own faith for Al's return. But he had moved out of the dreary waiting room, with pretentious paintings of friendly flowers and shining lakes, oils that had never seen the real sun. Paintings that brought fake color to the room, a reminder of why people were ever there in the first place. The forgotten atmosphere that relished in the hanging tension that was truly a weighted scale between life and death and everything else.

The blonde was beyond the waiting room, and the two headed towards the exit. The alchemist pausing for a moment, his gaze moving to the right, his long braid falling after him, as his direction changed. Thick black boots with a red strip stopping as they reached the two figures in solid blue that stood by the double doors of the hospital.

"Hagane." Fuhrer Roy Mustang said in a cordial voice, friendly distaste falling from his lips, never losing the extreme seriousness of the hospital aura about them. The pretty stoic blonde woman with rather new black framed glasses that stood beside him, a familiar stiff greeting, "Edward-kun." A light nod of the head from Riza Hawkeye. Her eyes softened slightly as she asked in her naturally commanding voice, "How is he?"

Winry smiled at them, her features brightening as she gave a cheerful greeting to Hawkeye, a mildly hesitant look dawning when her eyes landed on Roy. Her family had departed elsewhere because of him, it was known. But deep within her heart, it was pitted and a seed had planted itself over the years, a fevered loneliness that couldn't be shredded. Roy Mustang, Winry knew was a wonderful, kind, and honest man. The sad thing was, her thoughts of what was and wasn't a fable kept her from the truth she knew.

"No change." Edward said dully, having walked passed the two, and towards the car that was waiting for the four of them. It had been four years since he had last seen Roy Mustang and his companion. However adventures never ceased, danger never dissipated. Life stopped, hearts resounded, and went on and on and on. Theories, memories, and the present depriving him of the future that he and Al had imagined.

Now Edward didn't know if that would ever happen. He didn't know if his brother would ever waken . In the past one of them would only have to shout and the other would come tearing out of anywhere or nowhere. The car ride was on mute, and the only thing for Edward to do was watch the town go by, falling into the hypnotic passion of the painful week before that had crushed Edward's will to live. The entire scene that played and replayed to the blonde alchemist's demise. The fury, the force, the irony.

_The seven sins. _

Envy. Greed. Wrath. Lust. Gluttony. Pride. Sloth.

They didn't die.

They _never_ die.

As long as mortal men give up their souls to the devil.

As long as people throw themselves on their knees to Gods.

As long as gates that should be locked, remain open...

They don't die.

...They _never_ die.


	3. Striking Softly

Even within the brimstones across dreamscapes, and morbid ideals of sensual intercourse, tormenting lifelike doll figures were always around to appease Sinful whims...there was no change. Deepened slumber concluded as reality, a palace of cascading red curtains, fluttering against white walls against a nonexistent wind, and pale bodies holding extraordinary poses against cathedral ceilings. Splashes of crimson and cleanly sliced body parts pinned up with nails and hung by clear wire, creating an entrance to a doorway of mystical options. 

Edward couldn't remember entering this hellhole pit of despair. And that was what he felt as his boots maneuvered across marble floors that glowed with malicious intent. He couldn't leave his brother so soon. They had just found each other again. They'd worked so hard. A glance down to normal peach colored hands. Edward Elric was beginning to learn that hard work didn't count some times.

Cool air flew around him flinging blond strands around his shoulders. Dangerous presence and silent seething amidst silent halls, and glistening chandeliers. A cruel snicker erupting from a balcony, as a form landed heavily on Edward, forcing the alchemist backwards, landing hard on his back.

_I am your silhouette.   
I am the shadow that haunts your dreams._

Cruel eyes stared down, a wide smile of demise and utmost anger, "…Chibi-chan" The mocking voice hadn't left the slender form as more weight fell upon the blonde. "I killed him…I-."

A heavy punch to the jaw flinging the Envious sin off the alchemist. Black hair flung around as balance was regained by a series of back flips to a knee. Long blonde hair gliding along black replacing and settling around the slender shoulders of Winry. "Edward, you jerk! I'm not going to make you a good auto mail if you keep abusing me!"

A disdainful laugh, and a snicker as a flash of light brought back the skimpily clad man. Chin tilted upwards, eyes pointing downwards towards the crouching angry form. Edward raised himself to his feet. He was still shorter then Envy. And still a chibi in his eyes. 

Within said eyes so black, so dark, so beady, the massacre he'd seen and created. Voided flames that existed only in the mind. A prison, an entrapment. Black glaring at gold, gold staring back into Fate.

A slow voice, "I killed him."

No. How? 

"…And I'll kill you now."

_And thus he flew,  
With angels wings thee flies._

Attack after attack, fleeting body motions and waves following patterns that were not in fact, patterns but barred hurt from nowhere. Flesh against solid flesh, blocks, defenses. No time to react. No time to reprimand. Edward could only move back and back as bruises rose and crimson spewed. His blood. Sleek black against red.

"…HATE you!"

A punch against cheek, a roundhouse kick to the neck. The blonde alchemist seeing stars and flying beads of red color. Back grinding against marble floors, clashing against pews. Stained glass windows with crying angels staring down, light drawing path lines along delicate skin, as the black figure dived. Punch after punch. Kick after kick. Retribution after retribution.

"I HATE YOU."

Cries flinging into the air. Screams as flesh tore and muscles ripped. Senseless movements. Not enough time to simply clap two hands together to…

_Live._

Hate blocked, white teeth covered by lips shifted into a wide grin. Eyes of insanity. Envy could take it and bring it. Black hair flying, turning into blonde, into black, into…silver blades. And…

Blood arched in the air.

_My life?_

…Death wasn't supposed to be so fast. Or so familiar. Edward remembered it had happened to him once before. And it was happening again.

A jerking motion, a spasm of the body.

The angels cried.  
The glass was stained.

Rain falling through cracks in the ceiling.

Striking.

Softly.


End file.
